By Ron Levac, Chief Innovation Officer at Spectrio
In today’s digital age, consumers are bombarded with advertisements and marketing messages competing for their attention. Standing out in this hyper competitive landscape requires retailers to go beyond traditional marketing methods. By leveraging innovative technologies and deep consumer insights, they can create personalised experiences that truly resonate with their target audience.
AI technology can be particularly helpful here. With AI-powered algorithms, stores can analyze vast amounts of customer data, enabling them to deliver precisely tailored messages to the right person at the right time. This level of personalisation was once a marketer’s dream but is now becoming a reality, driving more meaningful customer interactions and fostering brand loyalty.
As the technology continues to evolve, the potential for even more sophisticated and effective personalisation strategies will likely grow, promising a future in which every interaction with a customer feels uniquely catered to their preferences and needs.
AI’s customisation potential in retail marketing
The practice of using customer data to offer tailored product suggestions has been commonplace for years. In the past, major retailers like Target or Walmart utilized customer demographics and past buying behavior to send out targeted coupon lists and promotional offers via mail. Personalised ads on social media and ecommerce platforms have become the norm. AI algorithms are basically doing the same thing but with a heightened level of sophistication and efficiency.
These algorithms are capable of analysing truly stupendous amounts of data to predict customer preferences, recommend products, and personalise marketing messages. Moreover, since the advent of deep learning networks and real-time analysis, the latest algorithms can adapt to new data as it becomes available, ensuring that recommendations and predictions remain relevant and accurate over time.
For retail stores, integrating this technology into digital signage is a natural step, allowing retailers to extend real-time personalised experiences to every customer as they navigate the store. Imagine a customer walking past a digital display of athletic apparel and accessories. The display’s sensor detects that someone has entered its field of view and provides tailored product recommendations based on the customer’s browsing behavior, such as dwell time and proximity to the product. When using a computer vision based sensor, it can also leverage their apparent age and gender, adding a whole new level of engagement between retailers and their customers.
Implementing AI-powered personalisation
To implement AI-powered personalisation in a retail setting, most businesses will begin by integrating AI algorithms into their existing systems, such as ecommerce platforms, customer relationship management (CRM) systems, and other touchpoints. These systems typically already contain vast customer data sets, making them an easy starting point for delivering personalised product recommendations and marketing messages.
Retailers can also bring their personalised content to life in-store where most buying decisions are made with AI-enhanced digital signage. Start by thoroughly assessing multiple vendors, evaluating their offerings based on functionality, ease of use, scalability, and customer support. Once you select the most suitable vendors, the next step is to determine the optimal locations for placing signage throughout the store to ensure maximum visibility and engagement. This process is ongoing and may require experimentation during a soft rollout phase. Monitor customer flow patterns, dwell times in different areas, and which displays attract the most attention to make data-driven adjustments and improvements over time.
As these systems typically include dashboards and key metrics reporting, they allow you to move from gut-feel to data driven decision making. These metrics will be essential to ensuring your personalised marketing efforts are achieving the desired outcomes, such as increased sales, higher conversion rates, and improved customer satisfaction. The goal is to create a dynamic and responsive in-store experience that feels personalised and engaging for each customer, without making them feel pestered or overwhelmed.
Final thoughts
AI-powered personalised marketing has come a long way in the last few years and there’s no telling what it will be capable of by the end of the decade. For now at least, AI-enhanced customer engagement offers an innovative way to engage with customers on a deeper level. As customers become more accustomed to this emerging technology, their demand for more personalised experiences will likely rise, making it essential for retailers to adapt their marketing efforts to stay competitive.
